Even Further Than Ottawa

I thought this story of a 16 year old running off to Baghdad to work on an "immersion journalism" project was great.

Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the
Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.

But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.

And he didn't even tell his parents.

Mother's reaction was predictable, though:

"I don't think I will ever leave him in the house alone again," she said. "He showed a lack of judgment."